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Show I '" ' " I There is no knowledge de- j jrn I ' j rived from present astxo- M DCene Oil UbserVed nomical and physical study nf I rnn ' to indicate that the moon is . , j Surface ol Luna inhab;ted by vertebratea of tiy THOMAS M. JEUNEIC Chicago lygher intelligence than 1 ' ours. Such an erroneous con clusion could arise only from disregard for the true methods of scientific investigation. The scene on the observed surface of Luna is a wilderness of rocks and rents and pinnacled mountains and yawning pits. The sun rises on them slowly at the end' of a fortnight of darkness, and its steady ray dispels the fiercest cold of the departed night. But with the dawn there is no stir of conscious protoplasmic activity like that on earth- There is no rising of vapors to form summer clouds. .The land is a land of death. The pits sunken by thousands all over the surface of the lunar world look like the collapsed sepulchexs of a vast and neglected cemetery. I The rocky ramparts that rise upon the borders are the monumental stones marking the tombs of life that perhaps once dwelt rrpon the planet, and the thousand rifts in the solid floor commemorate the death throes of this old world. The changes that are going on are changes of disintegration and decay. The prolonged and unclouded intensity of the solar rays succeeding succeed-ing the intense cold of the lunar night would cause expansion and contraction con-traction of the rock masses, and therefore a great destruction of rocky; j form would follow. : |
